First Week in BA

I'm almost done with my first full week in Buenos Aires...the city is incredibly overwhelming at first (well, it still is!).  It's really big, kind of hard to navigate at first, and just sort of difficult to get a feel for.  I feel bad for the people who come from like little towns out West who are shocked by cities in general!

IFSA (the name of my study abroad program) is very hands-off ... we go to a central location each day for orientation and Spanish classes, but besides that, they really don't give you any direction on how to get around, what to do, etc.  I think it's a good thing for sure, just different from Guatemala, where someone was telling us what to do every day. 

The very first day, we got a short course on how to use the "Guia T", which is their bus map, and then they shooed us out the door to go home. Yikes. That was difficult, to say the least.  The colectivos (buses) here are very complicated!!

I live in eastern Palermo, near Recoleta. It's a great location, kind of set off the main road near me, Santa Fe, but really close to bus stops and Subte stops.  I live with an older couple, named Mirta and Federico, and they are both really sweet.  They've had a lot of students come through, so they had a lot of things here for me (blow dryer, converters, cell phone, etc) and they know things that Americans like, I guess.  They eat dinner ridiculously late though, which will take some getting used to.  They eat at like 9 PM, by which time I'm definitely not hungry anymore, haha.  Also, both Mirta and Fede are "a la dieta" (on a diet), so they give me all the food they can't eat! We've actually ordered in for dinner for I think every dinner so far. .. maybe she doesn't like to cook? Oh well, its still good.

I haven't explored much of BA yet, besides Palermo a bit and Recoleta a bit.  I think maybe this afternoon, I'll go to San Telmo or some other neighborhood with my friends just to see more of the city.   BA is definitely very European ... they say a lot of it is very Italian, I've never been to Italy, so don't know about that, but I definitely see resemblances to Paris.  Lots of sidewalk cafes, very stylishly dressed people, attractive people in general...things like that.  Actually, we don't stick out at all in terms of appearance, minus the American dress.  I wear my pink North Face fleece around, and that is a sure sign of an American haha.  

I'm definitely having a good time so far, I can't wait to really get to know the city well and after that, start traveling around Argentina!